Peter Kropotkin

Russian Father of Anarcho-Communism

(1842 - 1921)

Description : As anarchism's most important philosophers he was in great demand as a writer and contributed to the journals edited by Benjamin Tucker (Liberty), Albert Parsons (Alarm) and Johann Most (Freiheit). Tucker praised Kropotkin's publication as "the most scholarly anarchist journal in existence." (From : Spartacus Educational Bio)

"ANARCHISM, the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government - harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being." (From : "Anarchism," by Peter Kropotkin, from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910.)

"Which side will you take? For the law and against justice, or for justice and against the law?" (From : "An Appeal to the Young," by Peter Kropotkin, 1880.)

"The communes of the next revolution will proclaim and establish their independence by direct socialist revolutionary action, abolishing private property. When the revolutionary situation ripens, which may happen any day, and governments are swept away by the people, when the middle-class camp, which only exists by state protection, is thus thrown into disorder, the insurgent people will not wait until some new government decrees, in its marvelous wisdom, a few economic reforms." (From : "The Commune of Paris," by Peter Kropotkin, Freedom Pamphlets, no. 2.)

"To recognize all men as equal and to renounce government of man by man is another increase of individual liberty in a degree which no other form of association has ever admitted even as a dream." (From : "Communism and Anarchy," by Peter Kropotkin, 1901.)

"...all that is necessary for production-- the land, the mines, the highways, machinery, food, shelter, education, knowledge--all have been seized by the few in the course of that long story of robbery, enforced migration and wars, of ignorance and oppression..." (From : "The Conquest of Bread," by Peter Kropotkin, 1906.)

"...the strength of Anarchy lies precisely in that it understands all human faculties and all passions, and ignores none..." (From : "The Conquest of Bread," by Peter Kropotkin, 1906.)

"The fatherland does not exist.... What fatherland can the international banker and the rag-picker have in common?" (From : "The Conquest of Bread," by Peter Kropotkin, 1906.)

"As to parliamentary rule, and representative government altogether... It is becoming evident that it is merely stupid to elect a few men, and to entrust them with the task of making laws on all possible subjects, of which subject most of them are utterly ignorant." (From : "Process Under Socialism," by Peter Kropotkin, 1887.)

"...outside of anarchism there is no such thing as revolution." (From : "Revolutionary Government," by Peter Kropotkin, 1880.)

"...let us remember that if exasperation often drives men to revolt, it is always hope, the hope of victory, which makes revolutions." (From : "The Spirit of Revolution," by Peter Kropotkin, first appearing in Le Révolté in 1880.)

Biography :

Peter Kropotkin 1

Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (/kroʊˈpɒtkɪn, krə-/;[10] Russian: Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин; December 9, 1842 – February 8, 1921) was a Russian activist, scientist, and philosopher, who advocated anarchism. Kropotkin was a proponent of a decentralized communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations of self-governing communities and worker-run enterprises. He wrote many books, pamphlets and articles, the most prominent being The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops, and his principal scientific offering, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. He also contributed the article on anarchism to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, and left unfinished a work on anarchist ethical philosophy.

From : Wikipedia.

Works :

Author of Anarchism (November 30, 1909)

Author of Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal (November 30, 1897)

Author of Advice to Those About to Emigrate (February 28, 1893)

Author of The Conquest of Bread (November 30, 1905)

Author of An Appeal to the Young (June 10, 1880)

Author of Brain Work and Manual Work (February 28, 1890)

Author of The Coming Anarchy (July 31, 1887)

Author of The Coming War (November 30, 1912)

Author of The Commune of Paris (March 20, 1880)

Author of Communism and Anarchy (July 01, 1901)

Author of The Constitutional Agitation in Russia (December 31, 1904)

Author of The Direct Action of Environment and Evolution (December 31, 1919)

Author of Expropriation (December 31, 1969)

Author of Finland: A Rising Nationality (December 31, 1969)

Author of The Fortress Prison of St. Petersburg (May 31, 1883)

Author of Anarchist Morality (November 30, 1897)

Author of Ethics: Origin and Development (November 30, 1923)

Author of Fields, Factories, and Workshops (November 30, 1911)

Author of The Great French Revolution (November 30, 1908)

Author of The Great French Revolution and its Lesson (November 30, 1888)